A Travel Blog by Andrea Marchegiani

To be precise, Joal Fadiouth are two places in one. Joal is a narrow peninsula at the end of Petit Cote, Senegal. It is home to a small fishing village, with its colorful pirogues and the rhythms of sea life. On the other hand, Fadiouth is a small island, connected to Joal by a wooden bridge about 800 meters long. It is entirely formed by empty shells of shells, accumulated here over the centuries by shellfish fishermen.

Toubakouta is the best starting point for exploring the Saloum River Delta, a fascinating maze of over 200 islets of sand and shells. The Saloum River Delta has been a national park since 1976 and covers over 70,000 hectares. Of these, 811 were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2011, due to the presence of mounds of shells, amassed by men over the centuries. These mounds have produced artificial islets, some of them hundreds of meters long, also used as burial places.

Fulani (or Peul) have arrived in Senegal migration after migration. Here they converted to Islam and some tribes became sedentary, with great contempt for others who still follow the original nomadic traditions. Their cattle have big horns and the Peuls like them so much that they give their children the name of the finest bulls and cows. Their society is based on the principles of freedom, dignity and beauty.

We get up early to reach Kayar’s fish market. What I’m about to see will fill my eyes with wonder. Kayar is a village about 60 km north of Dakar and is home to one of the largest fishing centers in Senegal. You would expect large boats equipped with industrial fishing systems and instead we are faced with an endless parade of pirogues, small traditional boats made of colored wood. Each boat has its own decorated motif, which identifies the family it belongs to.

Lake Retba, known as Lac Rose, is a Senegalese salt lake with a bright pink or red color. Its intense salinity is in fact superior to that of the Dead Sea and its bright pink color is due to the presence of a halophilic bacterium. The thin strip of sand that separates the lake from the ocean could disappear within a few years, due to climate change. UNESCO could make it a world heritage site soon.

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, Goree is located in the westernmost part of Africa. This has made it a sadly strategic place for the slave trade. In fact, millions of African men and women left from here, kidnapped in their lands and deported to the United States to work in the cotton and sugar cane fields. Here the French, Portuguese and Spanish colonialists bargained their price and carried out terrifying practices to sever their last yearnings for dignity. Already deprived of their freedom, here they had to lose all hope of regaining it.